CURRENT EVENTS - April

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Not in any way that would be favorable to the future of the law school.
On the theory that you want to keep your friends close and your enemies closer, there is a game theory that it would benefit UNC Law to have Berger in that role. In the past, there has been friction between the BoG and the law school (Gene Nichol years were quite tense).

As long as the power brokers in the state are Republican, you need to be strategic.

I'm not worried about a conservative Dean turning UNC Law into the next Scalia Law School (George Mason already has that honor). The faculty is pretty strong and has a lot of power in hiring decisions -- plus, faculty quality is a huge factor in school rankings. I would be surprised if Berger wanted to tank UNC Law's academic ranking as part of his legacy.
 
On the theory that you want to keep your friends close and your enemies closer, there is a game theory that it would benefit UNC Law to have Berger in that role. In the past, there has been friction between the BoG and the law school (Gene Nichol years were quite tense).

As long as the power brokers in the state are Republican, you need to be strategic.

I'm not worried about a conservative Dean turning UNC Law into the next Scalia Law School (George Mason already has that honor). The faculty is pretty strong and has a lot of power in hiring decisions -- plus, faculty quality is a huge factor in school rankings. I would be surprised if Berger wanted to tank UNC Law's academic ranking as part of his legacy.

This has been the line of thinking within the North Carolina Advocates for Justice (NCAJ), an organization made up mainly of North Carolina plaintiff’s lawyers and criminal defense lawyers. It has caused quite the rift within the organization. On one hand, you have those who really want to tone things down and do everything possible not to piss off the Republican-dominated general assembly. On the other hand, there are those who think we’re going way too far to try to walk on egg shells and are not serving the purposes for which the organization is intended. I do see the need to handle things somewhat delicately in various situations and to think strategically, but I also think the organization has defanged itself and has greatly abandoned its pursuit of justice. (Interestingly, current house speaker Destin Hall and former house speaker Tom Moore are/were members of the organization).

I have no direct ties to UNC School of Law, but I do fear the direction it could take with someone like Phil Berger in charge.
 

“…
  • Monica Reza was connected to NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab Project. "She went missing last summer while hiking in California. No trace," said Cain….

  • William McCasland was a retired Air Force General. "He once oversaw funding connected to a project that also included Monica Reza," added Cain. …
  • McCasland's wife Susan McCasland Wilkerson posted a lengthy note on Facebook on March 6. In her post, she confirmed that he associated with the "UFO community," but added, "Neil does not have any special knowledge about the ET bodies and debris from the Roswell crash stored at Wright-Patt. Though at this point with absolutely no sign of him, maybe the best hypothesis is that aliens beamed him up to the mothership. However, no sightings of a mothership hovering above the Sandia Mountains have been reported."…

  • Carl Grillmair was an astrophysicist at Caltech. "He worked on a NASA-supported space telescope project and infrared systems. Now, he was shot and killed at his home just two months ago," Cain said on the air. However, according to ABC 7, a suspect was charged with killing Grillmair "after carjacking his own relative and burglarizing a home." Grillmair "was found shot to death on the porch of his home in rural Llano."

  • Frank Maiwald was a Senior Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. "He died nearly two years ago but his cause of death has never been made public," added Cain.

  • Two months after Melissa Casias, a 53-year-old Los Alamos National Labs employee, went missing, her disappearance has left more questions than answers. New Mexico State Police reported no breakthroughs in the investigation." According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, "Casias had driven her husband, Mark Casias, to Los Alamos National Laboratory, where they both worked, around 6:15 a.m. June 26 but returned home to work remotely after discovering she'd forgotten her work badge." That news site reported that, according to Casias's daughter, Casias left her vehicle, keys, work cellphone, wallet, personal cellphone, purse, and money. Her phones were "reset to factory settings." Surveillance footage emerged showing her "walking eastbound on N.M. 518," the Santa Fe New Mexican reported. It's possible she left on her own volition, the news site noted, but it's not clear….
  • Anthony Chavez was aonnected to Los Alamos National Labs. "He disappeared during a walk. No signs. No answers," said Cain. According to Daily Mail, he worked "at the high-security nuclear lab. The facility was founded by the famed Manhattan Project during World War II. It has been tied to nuclear weapons research ever since." Chavez "left his car locked in the driveway and did not take his wallet, keys or other personal items, which were all found inside Chavez's home," Daily Mail noted….
  • Nuno Loureiro Was Shot & Killed When He Answered the Doorbell "Authorities have not connected these cases, but look at the overlap," said Cain. MIT noted, "Nuno Loureiro, a professor of nuclear science and engineering and of physics at MIT, has died. He was 47...A lauded theoretical physicist and fusion scientist, Loureiro joined MIT's faculty in 2016. His research addressed complex problems lurking at the center of fusion vacuum chambers and at the edges of the universe." Police believe that Loureiro was shot and killed when he answered the door at his home by Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, the suspect in the Brown University mass shooting, who later died of suicide.

  • Jason Thomas was a scientist at Novartis, a Swiss pharmaceutical company, when he went missing in December 2025, according to People. According to People, he was struggling with the deaths of his parents, and no foul play is expected. In March, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Wakefield Chief of Police Steven Skory "confirmed that a body was recovered from Lake Quannapowitt...Preliminary information including the clothing of the victim suggests that it is the body of Jason Thomas, 45, who was reported missing to Wakefield Police on December 13, 2025."
 
“…
  • Monica Reza was connected to NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab Project. "She went missing last summer while hiking in California. No trace," said Cain….

  • William McCasland was a retired Air Force General. "He once oversaw funding connected to a project that also included Monica Reza," added Cain. …
  • McCasland's wife Susan McCasland Wilkerson posted a lengthy note on Facebook on March 6. In her post, she confirmed that he associated with the "UFO community," but added, "Neil does not have any special knowledge about the ET bodies and debris from the Roswell crash stored at Wright-Patt. Though at this point with absolutely no sign of him, maybe the best hypothesis is that aliens beamed him up to the mothership. However, no sightings of a mothership hovering above the Sandia Mountains have been reported."…

  • Carl Grillmair was an astrophysicist at Caltech. "He worked on a NASA-supported space telescope project and infrared systems. Now, he was shot and killed at his home just two months ago," Cain said on the air. However, according to ABC 7, a suspect was charged with killing Grillmair "after carjacking his own relative and burglarizing a home." Grillmair "was found shot to death on the porch of his home in rural Llano."

  • Frank Maiwald was a Senior Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. "He died nearly two years ago but his cause of death has never been made public," added Cain.

  • Two months after Melissa Casias, a 53-year-old Los Alamos National Labs employee, went missing, her disappearance has left more questions than answers. New Mexico State Police reported no breakthroughs in the investigation." According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, "Casias had driven her husband, Mark Casias, to Los Alamos National Laboratory, where they both worked, around 6:15 a.m. June 26 but returned home to work remotely after discovering she'd forgotten her work badge." That news site reported that, according to Casias's daughter, Casias left her vehicle, keys, work cellphone, wallet, personal cellphone, purse, and money. Her phones were "reset to factory settings." Surveillance footage emerged showing her "walking eastbound on N.M. 518," the Santa Fe New Mexican reported. It's possible she left on her own volition, the news site noted, but it's not clear….
  • Anthony Chavez was aonnected to Los Alamos National Labs. "He disappeared during a walk. No signs. No answers," said Cain. According to Daily Mail, he worked "at the high-security nuclear lab. The facility was founded by the famed Manhattan Project during World War II. It has been tied to nuclear weapons research ever since." Chavez "left his car locked in the driveway and did not take his wallet, keys or other personal items, which were all found inside Chavez's home," Daily Mail noted….
  • Nuno Loureiro Was Shot & Killed When He Answered the Doorbell "Authorities have not connected these cases, but look at the overlap," said Cain. MIT noted, "Nuno Loureiro, a professor of nuclear science and engineering and of physics at MIT, has died. He was 47...A lauded theoretical physicist and fusion scientist, Loureiro joined MIT's faculty in 2016. His research addressed complex problems lurking at the center of fusion vacuum chambers and at the edges of the universe." Police believe that Loureiro was shot and killed when he answered the door at his home by Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, the suspect in the Brown University mass shooting, who later died of suicide.

  • Jason Thomas was a scientist at Novartis, a Swiss pharmaceutical company, when he went missing in December 2025, according to People. According to People, he was struggling with the deaths of his parents, and no foul play is expected. In March, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Wakefield Chief of Police Steven Skory "confirmed that a body was recovered from Lake Quannapowitt...Preliminary information including the clothing of the victim suggests that it is the body of Jason Thomas, 45, who was reported missing to Wakefield Police on December 13, 2025."

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Not to go all Scully on this story, but several of those deaths sound coincidental/unrelated.

Still pretty creepy to see that number of disappearances with related backgrounds.
 
Don't know how many would be considered as "scientists" in those related fields. Does this number even represent a statistical anomaly, especially since a couple are pretty clearly explainable?
 
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